Advertisers pull spots from “All American Muslim”

posted at 4:45 pm on December 10, 2011 by Jazz Shaw

Last month we previewed a new television series which, as we predicted, was bound to stir up some controversy. Called “All American Muslim,” it detailed the lives of a group of Muslim families living in the vicinity of Dearborn, Michigan. It’s been on the air for only a few weeks, but the brouhaha has begun as one group is protesting the show and demanding that advertisers pull their spots.

Lowe’s, the national hardware chain, has pulled commercials from future episodes of “All-American Muslim,” a TLC reality-TV show, after protests by Christian groups.

The Florida Family Association, a Tampa Bay group, has led a campaign urging companies to pull ads on “All-American Muslim.” The FFA contends that 65 of 67 companies it has targeted have pulled their ads, including Bank of America, the Campbell Soup Co., Dell, Estee Lauder, General Motors, Goodyear, Green Mountain Coffee, McDonalds, Sears, and Wal-Mart.

“’All-American Muslim’ is propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law,” the Florida group asserts in a letter it asks members to send to TLC advertisers.

It’s unclear whether the demands of the FFA have led to much direct action on the part of advertisers. As the article notes, at least two of the companies listed had only purchased one ad and simply didn’t buy any more. And Amway issued a flat denial of having pulled their advertising.

I’m still not clear exactly what the FFA is basing their complaint on, though. They’re saying that the show is “misleading” but how so? Because they are showing Muslim-Americans with jobs and families rather than showing people blowing up buildings? The stated description of the show seems to be fairly clear.

All-American Muslim takes a look at life in Dearborn, Michigan–home to the largest mosque in the United States–through the lens of five Muslim American families.

Each episode offers an intimate look at the customs and celebrations, misconceptions and conflicts these families face outside and within their own community.

Either way, protests like this generally produce the precise opposite effect than the one intended by groups like FFA. Companies advertise to make money and they want to sell to everyone as much as is possible. They don’t tend to want to get drawn into divisive controversies like this, and if they’re going to pull their advertising, they’ll generally do it quietly and simply stop making ad buys.

In the meantime, starting such a protest draws media attention, generates controversy, and pretty much acts as free advertising for the show on a broader scale than the network could ever afford through conventional marketing. It will be interesting over the next few weeks to see what happens with its ratings. It debuted with a modest 1.7M viewers (not a shockingly high or low number for a ten PM Sunday night slot) and in its third week had dropped nearly 50% to roughly one million.

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Jazz, your naivete is showing. Just as in “norming homosexuality” with stuff like the show “Glee,” this Muslim schtick is intended to act as SOMA for islam over Americans’ minds. NO SALE.

Czar of Defenestration on December 10, 2011 at 5:20 PM

AMEN!!!

Dearbornistan, Michigan is no longer anywhere near a ‘slice of America’. It is an enclave of a massive migration of Muslims and their subsequent offspring who are in the process of ripping out the Americana and turning that city into what they want… a wholly Muslim city on American soil.

Ask anyone who lived there, or even within 20 miles of there, before the Muslims concertedly flocked there and took over the entire city and county and made it their own.

If they want to do a show on so-called ‘All-American Muslims’ they should follow some Muslim families in cities that haven’t been uprooted, turned upside down, and inside out by an Islamic agenda. That show is pure propaganda and not one iota more.

I can’t wait now for the TLC reality show on Christian families in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Egypt.

formerACLUmember on December 11, 2011 at 8:29 PM

THIS IS THE REAL THREAD WINNER! I have to say…I am one of the “Pandora’s Box” New guys…but I am so glad to be able to comment on this website. The reason is…while this is becoming my first/second website hit of the day…along with Drudge…THE COMMENTS are the wittiest on the web…by far…

I think it is worth noting that before this protest, I’d venture to guess no one had ever heard of the Florida Family Association. More likely the media went desperately in search of anyone protesting against the show so that they could continue the “Christians are intolerant” meme.

Seen a little of the show, but not enough to say more than that it appears to be kinda standard, stupid fare, like all the [un]reality shows. One thing it unwittingly shows (as does all info regarding so-called muslims) is that the only muslims anyone can stand, including themselves, are those that aren’t practicing Islam according to the Koran. If they were, they’d be so insufferable and overbearing (not to mention, violent), they’d be happy to kill themselves–oh, yeah, that happens. So that should tell everyone something worth knowing.

Re: <0bama being a muslim, clearly he is viewed by some in the muslim world as one. Otherwise, he is an apostate–a status that carries a death sentence. Now I'm hearing he's publicly prayed the Shehada–'nuff said.